Synopsis: Are risks from emerging technologies the highest existential threats we face? Suddenly, the question is getting more attention. It is overdue. By mixing and matching pathogens in labs with poor biosecurity records, says Matthews, we are playing Russian roulette.

Synopsis: Why rush the GE chestnut into regulatory review when even its own creators recognize it cannot fulfill the goal of species restoration? Because the engineered chestnut – using “nothing but a wheat gene” to “restore a beloved iconic species” is a public relations tool for winning over public opinion toward GE trees, and for the use of biotechnology as a “tool of conservation”. This is a strategy that biotechnology industry proponents expect will soften public opposition and open up the potential for commercializing a wide array of GE trees.

On a recent trip to Hawai’i, Jonathan Latham, Director of the Project, talked at the University of Hawai’i.

“Industrial agriculture is logically dependent on infringing on the quality of life, often catastrophically, of diverse creatures. The islands comprising Hawai’i exhibit those harms perhaps more than anywhere else on earth. Using new revelations of the Poison Papers (www.poisonpapers.org) as examples of how regulators fail to protect us, I discuss the true extent of those impacts. Even without revelations such as the Poison Papers however, we already know enough to stop supporting industrial agriculture, yet governments continue to do so, showering them with subsidies and other incentives. The reasons they decide wrongly are in part about economics and in part about scientific corruption; but here I point to an underlying conceptual flaw in our collective cultural understanding of life itself. Critiquing our standard, but illogical, modern interpretation of the nature of life is an overlooked key to understanding the the tragic and disastrous policies and practices prevailing in agriculture. But immediately obvious too is that the misunderstanding of life pervades much more broadly–into the justice system, into education, and into healthcare, to name just a few of those domains.”

Synopsis: J.R. Simplot is a potato processing and marketing company, based in Idaho, that has recently launched GMO potatoes with supposedly enhanced disease resistance, enhanced uniformity, and improved healthiness. However, according to Caius Rommens, Simplot’s former lead potato breeder, the reality is very different. As a crop, the potatoes contain genetically unstable traits, suffer a significant yield drag, are designed to conceal bruises and spread diseases, and are intended to be grown and stored in ways that maximize disease and pest pressures. Additionally, as a processed food, they have lost the sensory attributes that make normal potato-based foods attractive. Even worse, they likely contain dramatically increased toxins that may cause health safety issues. Furthermore, the development of these GMO potatoes involved at least one act of biopiracy. Nevertheless, these GMO potatoes are quietly entering the marketplace with innocuous names such as Innate Potato, White Russett, and Hibernate – and others will follow. All this and more is described in a short new book, “Pandora’s Potatoes”, written by Caius Rommens, the inventor of these potatoes.

Caius Rommens, PhD, was a researcher at UC Berkeley, then Monsanto, and later started the biotech program at J.R. Simplot. He has authored

We expose our world to unique hazards with every new technology. Gene Editing technologies are becoming one of the most discussed issues of our day.

There is documented evidence into the unpredictability of genetic engineering. Yet there is mounting pressure for new gene technologies to be used with no regulatory supervision.

Dr. Latham will talk on the politics of food. The problems with both the internal culture of decision makers, the legal framework that is often fraught with industry influences that prevent precautionary decision-making, even when the science clearly points to danger. The importance of a strong regulatory system that will ensure we have a healthy food system and a healthy world.

Biofuelwatch has launched a new webpage resource “Biotechnology for Biofuels”. This page compiles their analyses of the biotechnology push to genetically engineer crops, trees, and microbes for biofuels and the bioeconomy. “Biotechnology for Biofuels” includes in-depth investigations of three biofuel companies – Algenol, Mascoma, and Solazyme/TerraVia, and will be updated with forthcoming reports on algal and ligno-cellulosic biofuels, followed by further materials.

Save S-VE (Spencer-Van Etten) invites you to join them for a screening of the film GMO OMG on Sunday, February 28, 2:00 p.m. at the Van Etten Community Center, 4 Gee Street, Van Etten. The screening will be followed by a talk and Q&A with Jonathan Latham, PhD, executive director, and Allison Wilson, PhD, science director, of the Bioscience Resource Project, who will help put this all in context and answer questions after the screening.

A bit about GMO OMG:
What exactly are GMOs (genetically modified organisms)? How do GMOs affect our health, our children’s health, the health of our planet, and our freedom of choice? And perhaps the ultimate question, which filmmaker and father Jeremy Seifert tests: Is it even possible to reject the current food system, or have we lost “real” food forever?

These and other questions take Seifert on a journey to gain insight into a question that is troubling people all over the world: What’s on our plate?

NON-GMO refreshments will be provided. The event is free and open to all.

What: Screening of GMO OMG and discussion with Jonathan Latham and Allison Wilson (and food!)When: Sunday, February 28, 2016, 2:00-5:00 p.m.Who: You and friends.Why: Food matters. And we need to know what it is before we put it in our mouths!How much? Free! Although we welcome donations.Please check “Going” on the event Facebook page so we know how many to provide food for!